-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- A flight from Chicago to Shanghai suffered an apparent bird strike after takeoff and landed safely back at Chicago 's O'Hare Airport on Sunday .

American Airlines Flight 289 took off around 10:45 a.m. Shortly after , the crew reported a problem on board .

By 11:18 a.m. the plane was back on an O'Hare runway , according to a spokeswoman for the Chicago Department of Aviation .

My-Linh Bui , American Airlines spokeswoman , said the problem was apparently a bird strike .

None of the 236 passengers or 15 crew members was injured .

Mechanics are looking at the plane , Bui said .

Passengers booked to Shanghai will depart on another flight .

Bird strike is the term used for incidents in which planes collide with birds . Often the creatures get sucked into a plane 's engine . Considering how small they are compared to a plane , they can cause big problems .

The Federal Aviation Administration tracks these incidents . It says wildlife , both feathered and furry , has done billions of dollars in damage over the years .

In the past 12 months alone , O'Hare has reported 122 such wildlife strikes . Everything from a wood thrush to a barn swallow has tangled with airplanes there . Run-ins with a coyote and a cottontail were also reported .

Of those , only one resulted in any notable problem . In November a red-tailed hawk and a Nippon cargo plane , a 747 , collided . Substantial damage resulted .

One of the most famous bird-plane encounters in recent years resulted in the `` Miracle on the Hudson . ''

On January 15 , 2009 , US Airways Flight 1549 left LaGuardia Airport and ran into a flock of geese that damaged both engines , forcing the crew to make an emergency landing in the frigid Hudson River .

Rescuers quickly reached the aircraft and found passengers standing on its wings . Everyone was rescued .

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Flight to Shanghai returns safely to Chicago about half an hour after takeoff

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The passengers and crew are unharmed

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Mechanics are looking at the plane ; passengers will take a different flight